Worker Bees Blog is where BlogHer co-founder Elisa Camahort Page muses about marketing, social media, customer service and other Web 2.0 inanities

Monday, August 16, 2004

Interesting post on fake blog commenters

YPulse is a blog about reaching Generation Y, and today she has an interesting post about commenters touting Warner Brothers product on blogs. Problem? They were Warner Brother employees posing as tweeners.

This brings up one of my pet topics: authenticity. Authenticity is everything on a blog or in the online community in general.

I CAN go post offers in my online communities and in my blogs. But I have to be a genuine member of these communities outside those offers. And I have to match the offer with the community.

I'm not going to go push my theatre discounts on my political communities. And I'm not going to push my political blog out to the theatre communities.

It's pretty simple. You have to be an authentic member of your online world. Dropping by to drop a sales pitch, then leaving never to be heard from again...sure recipe for disaster.